The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-12-08
ANARonY,s STURDY FOE.

.... ANARChS'S STURDY FOE. -...E.r
General Master workman Powderly's
Lecture on His Order--Secret Birth and
Rapid Growth. ...-.
"The past, present and future Of the
knights of Labor" was the subject of
lecture delivered by General Master
Workman Powderly to the employees of
the Pennsylvania and Reading railroad
in Philadelphia on Friday night. He
had big and appreciative audience.
Prefacing his address by an eloquent
denunciation of monopoly and passing
reference to the war for the abolition of
slavery among the colored race only to
transfer its shacllles to millions of white
mon in the liberty loving country, Mr..
Powderly applied himself to the subject
proper OF his lecture, and said:
TUE LECTURE.
con Thanksgiving eve, in the year
1869, there was born in Philadelphia an
organization destined to hold forth the
hand OF fellowship to every man, which
brushed aside all distinctions Of creed,
and III view of which it was made posi-
bic for the meanest sweeper that lifts the
oDal off our streets to look up with hope
to a botter and less degrading future.
'Ihus was given to tho world the
knights of Labor, which worked IS a
| secret organization until September,
1881, when in the city of Detroit it laid
its secrecy aside and tho Knight came
forth in his manhood and proclaimed to
the toilers of the earth that he belonged
| to body which took no account of
creed or color, but had pledged itself to
work earnestly and persistently for tho
| collective and individual interests of it's
| members.
"To-day that organization is the
strongest IN membership, the strongest
IN intelligence and tho strongest in man
hood of any organization ever created
beneath the blue sky of heaven. We
welcome to our ranks every man, not, rs
hes been said, for the dollars or dimes
his accession may bring, but to teach
him the things in our social system that
need remedy and create public
opinion upon tho objects we have set
ourselves to attain"
| LABOR-SAvING MACHINERY.
MIR. Powdcrly next refcrrcd to the in
PRODUCTION of labor-saving machinery,
and Ill this connection said: "DO [ rail
against labor-saving machinery?" No.
| But J. say that ut present it is not prop
| crly applied, and that we workiuQmen
who SHOULD, do not derive the benefits
from its introduction to which labor, as
distinguished from capital, is entitled.
What. then, should we do in this con-
| nectlon? L raise my voice and say,
agltnte along the line of labor; agitatc
until all those who avail of those ma
chimes now arc compelled to realize thnt
they were not intended solely for them
that they were designed for mankind,
and that mankind should reap the bene-
fits from them"
| LEGlSLATlON AND IMMIGRATION.
Mr.. Powderly next applied himself to
the Legislative work accomplished by the
order since it's inception. This, he said,
| was greater than any amount Of remedial
Legislation for the working classes that
was passed by either of the political par
Ties III the same period Of their early ex-
| iStcnCp.
The question of foreign labor was
alludcd TO, and in reference thereto the
lecturer said he was not opposed to for
clSn immigration provided the imni-
| grants came to stay and become part aud
| parcel CT the country of the adoption.
lle warmly denounced imported contract
labor, and gave graphic picture Of the
| WrctchCdness and filth of the domestic
surroundings of somo Hungarian minors
whose district he had visited some years
! ago.
DEFENDING TIE MINERS.
or the miners III the Lchigh region
Mr.. Powderly said: cit is said that the
miners arc rough and uncouth lot.
Ihat dcnouncc rs false slander. No
braVcr, kinder or more generous body OF
men brcathcs the air of heaven than the
miners of the Schuylkill and Lchigh
Valley coal regions.
"A breaker is burned, the smoke
aFcends to heaven and the telegraph
wires flash the news that it was done by
the striking miners. J. say that is bare
faced lie. No miner ever did it, for the
miners arc not fools, They know that
all the property there is heavily covered
by insurance, and they have feelings of
revenge at all they will not avenge them
selves on the insurance companies, who
arc certainly not their opprcssors.
|